This invention generally relates to slicing of meat products, more particularly to meat product slicing which eliminates slices formed from more than one meat muscle cut or piece. Prior to slicing, the whole meat muscle cut or piece is somewhat reshaped, particularly its longitudinal end portions, by engaging same with a spacer when the meat and spacer are within a casing which is then longitudinally tensioned.
Casings are of course well known for their usefulness in producing meat products of various types. It is also generally appreciated that casings are useful in shaping meats. Included in this regard are shaping smaller meat pieces, including ground meat, within casings in order to form products which are traditionally recognized as sausages, luncheon meats, restructured meat products, and the like. Patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,480,449 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,666 incorporate the use of discs at the longitudinal ends of casings otherwise filled with ground meat, multiple meat pieces and meat batters. Discs of this type are said to provide flattened sausage ends. In some channels of trade, such flattened ends can be considered to be aesthetically more pleasing than a dome-shaped end.
Also generally known is the use of casings in preparing so-called chunk sectioned and formed meat products. Illustrative in this regard is U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,084. In some instances, casings are used in procedures for joining together two or more larger muscle pieces or chunks. In such approaches, the casing surrounding the meat is stretched and clipped to close same around the meat, thereby compressing the meat and adhering the meat pieces together at the interfaces between them.
In approaches such as these, it is also known to cook the meat when thus stuffed into the casings, and allow the meat to cool and set. The result is the formation of a relatively solid assembled meat product which remains assembled and which generally retains the shape imparted to it as a result of the casing stretching and cooking. Such approaches also include traditional treatments which are known to those skilled in the art, such as chilling and the like. It is also heretofore known that the thus-assembled shaped meat product can be sliced as desired. Often, this slicing is carried out after the casing is removed and typically discarded. These types of approaches are often geared toward providing stacks of sliced meat products. These meat product slices may be of uniform slice thickness, with each slice having a target weight. Alternatively, slicing technology is available for forming slices of uniform weight.
In certain applications, sliced meat products which have a restructured constitution are perceived as being of lower quality and thus less desirable, when compared with slices made from whole muscle cuts or large pieces of meat. Meats which have been restructured or assembled can be perceived as less desirable when, by casual observation, it is evident that the meat piece or slice had been made from more than a single muscle piece. These types of observations are especially easily made when the meat is a beef product. Meat cuts such as those traditionally identified as roast beef vary considerably from piece to piece in terms of color, texture, grain orientation and overall appearance. Accordingly, when a slice of roast beef is cut from an assembled meat product, that slice can vary in appearance from slices made from other roast beef products. In general, this is expected and usually therefore easily accepted (if not welcomed) by the consumer. However, this divergence in appearance is often viewed negatively by the consumer when this variety in appearance occurs in the same slice. For example, such a slice could have a significant portion which is of a reddish color and another significant portion which is of a grayish color, thereby strongly indicating a line of demarcation which evidences a product which is restructured and had been assembled from more than one muscle piece.
An important reason for reshaping products such as large cuts of meat muscle is to enhance the efficiency of slicing and of slice distribution. Most naturally occurring or traditionally butchered meat cuts are not of a uniform shape. Although some such cuts can be considered to be generally longitudinal in shape, and thus often more conveniently sliced, even these types of cuts of muscle have longitudinal end portions which are not uniformly shaped or sized. Virtually every naturally occurring or traditionally butchered meat muscle piece does not have a uniform size and shape throughout its longitudinal extent. Without reshaping, certain slices (often those at the longitudinal ends) will be difficult to slice, thereby leaving low-value butt ends. Alternatively, if slicing of these portions of meat pieces is carried out, the resulting slices are often less than satisfactory, such as being significantly underweight or of too small a perimeter in order to satisfy demanding expectations and tastes of consumers. Accordingly, there is often a desire to proceed with some reshaping so as to substantially increase slicing yield for a given cut or piece of meat muscle, such as one traditionally used in preparing whole roast beef slices.
It would accordingly be desirable to achieve the slicing yield benefits and handling efficiency benefits which can be realized by proceeding with some type of reshaping procedure. At the same time, it would be desirable to achieve this important commercial result without encountering the perceived disadvantageous result of providing slices which have a structure originating from more than a single meat muscle cut or piece. It would also be advantageous if these important results could be obtained without requiring specially designed and manufactured equipment.